SEETHING INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 25, 23 February 1909, Page 4

SEETHING INDIA.

LIMIT ON THE TROUBLE li\ THE JEWEL OF THE EMPIRE. "1 sleep with six hundred cartridges under my bed. it is the only sale place Ifor them," wrote a civilian living at Mussoorie, in the Provinces. This was just after our series of disastrous defeats by the Boers on the Tiir gela.

It was those disasters which were the main cause of the present trouble ia India. Every one of the Indian natives knew all about the results of our lighting in South Africa. The very poorest and most ignorant fellahs and coolies heard of our defeats.

"The Belattce sahibs," they said to .one another, "are defeated. Can there be some nation greater than they if And, if some can beat them, cannot we regain our land!"

How they got their information is one of those puzzles which Western science canaot cope with. Call it brain messages, or anything you please, the fact remains that news travels in India in an utterly mysterious fashion, and reaches distant points more rapidly than the telegraph can spread it. "UUMM'S WLNOS OF WIND."

A;iy number oi instances might be quoted. Here is one. On Mil February, 1752, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal was giving a dinner at Simla. During the meal the Pathau servant of a wellknown colonel who was one of the guests lciiiut over and whispered in his master's ear.

The, oiliec'r started sharply, then scribbled a line on a page of his pocketbook, and passed it up to the LieutenantGovernor. "Lord Mayo is murdered" were the words.

The telegraphic newn of the assassination), of the Viceroy, which had just occurred, nearly a thousand miles away, in, the Andaman Islands, did not arrive till some hours later.

H Is perfectly well known, too, that the fall of Delhi, during the Mutiny, was known in Hyderabad many hours before telegraphic news reached the British. Resident in that city. The worst of India is. that we Western .people understand as little of the Indian, mind as the Indian'does of the British way of looking at things. When an Indian of birth come® to England, he is invited everywhere. He goes to the best houses, and is received i«i society on equal terms with white people, lie returns home, and finds thai, whereas in, England Lord asked him to, dine, in India, DeputyAssistant Adjutant llatly refuses to. sit at meat with him. ETERNAL WOMAN!

This seems, on the face 01 it, hard and unjust. It is not so in reality. Tlic whole white population of india is about a quarter of a, milliou. The colored outnumber theui eleven hundred to one. If tile, ruling racK fail to keep up their prestige, if they mix on equal terms with the colored, good-bye to British rule in India. Von might as well t ; ry to mix oil with water as brown man and white. The impassable barrier is the ''purdah.'' The Indiap, whether Mussulman or Hindu, regards wormtm kind from a. point of view totally different to Western ideals. Briefly, women in India are secluded, and -the-higher the rank of the head of the family, the more carefully are his womankind .kept Jroni public gaze. If they travel, it is in closed and curtained vehicles. To ask the wife of an Indian jnincc to a dauico would be the host horrible insult conceivable. The point of view is best explained by the perieetly true story of the Eastern noten'tato who, visiting Euglaml at the Jubilee of 18!I7, ■oll'cred to buy the wile of his titled host, and was bitterly offended when the offer was somewhat sharply refused. Tour Indian is also jealous of precedence beyond anything, which can be conceived in the .West. Every single native prince —and there are ninetythree of them— is entitled to a certain

artillery salute.- Eight of the lirst rank are entitled to twenty-one guns on British territory. Nine guns is. the lowest salute.

It fa an absolute fact that, when tlie salute- of tho Maharajah of Khota was reduced from seventeen to thirteen for disloyalty during the Indian Mutiny, that ruler went to bed, and nearly died of a broken heart. On the other hand, when the. Maharajah, of Jagpur had his raised from seventeen- to nineteen, lor the good work he did in tho famine of IBOH, lie feasted liis whole Court on champagne for a week. LateT on, at tlie Durbar in 1871, there was a most desperate quarrel between the rulers of Jagpur and Newar, because the former refused to sit below the latter at the cciremony.

It ended in Jagpur refusing to attend the Durbar at all. By way of pun'ishmemt, he was docked of his two extra guns for a twelvemonth.

In spito of their curiously strong ideas o-,i tire subject of precedence, the native chiefs are our great stand-by. Even in the danc days of the Mutiny, many—such as the ifaliarajah of Judhpore—stood by the JlritisJi with unswerving loyalty. 'During the South Airicim War, Judhpore, who i.s not rrch, as Indian princes go, offered to send, at his own cost, svven hundred splendidlymounted men. to the Cape. ■Again, only tho other day, when a wretched young Bengali attempted <fl assassinate Sir Andrew Eraser, Licutcsi-ant-Governor of llongnl, it was the Maharajah of Burdwan, premier noble of Bengal, and a inagniiicently-buiH young iiran, who Hung himself between the Governor and life assassin. If the pistol had not faileVl to go off, he would certainly liave (laid for his splendid pluck with his life. THE CASTE SYSTEM.

The easte system is India is another bar to the mixture, not only of white and colored, but of the native races among themselves.

Originally, there were only four castes. Now, owing to inter-marriage and other causes, there arc scores. Even tin; '■pariahs'' or outcasts have castes among themselves. J i Travancoro, with a population of only two and a-hatf millions, there are said to be 420 castes! As is well known, no member of one caste may cat food prepared by a member of another, tie may even be defiled l>y the shadow of a man oi another easte falling upon him. EnfelisJx people in India have to keep iiiitjiy servants. The man who sweeps your room will on no account wash the teacups; your groom would let the horses starve rather thim mow a little grass; and so caste affects every servant.

The Jew is not more particular about the preparation of ,his food than the high-caste Indian. In September last, his Highness iShere Jung, Prime Minister of Nepaul, came to England, and two cows had to be- procured from a farm iiud milked by a, member of the prince's own suite, tefore their master could enjoy a meal.